ETCDEV, an Ethereum Classic [ETC] Development Team Goes Down

The cryptocurrency industry has suffered a terrible year compared to the previous year; the crypto market a shadow of itself at this time last year. The crises are now claiming notable casualties, the latest an established team of developers working on Ethereum Classic.

Igor Artamonov, the founder and chief technology officer of ETCDEV, announced Monday that the group is shutting down due to a paucity of funds.

He wrote:

“Unfortunately ETCDEV cannot continue to work in the current situation and has to announce the shutdown of our current activities.”

He explained in an attached letter that the company succumbed in part to the current crises in the crypto market.

He wrote:

“As is publicly known, we have struggled with funding our operation in the last few weeks. This was partially due to the market crash, combined with a cash crunch in the company.”

ETCDEV have experienced challenges—financial and otherwise—which was documented on its Twitter handle as well as its Medium blog.

But ETCDEV is not the only ones to be affected by the tough financial climate in crypto circles. In a post published in November, Artamonov acknowledged that the situation was biting hard on blockchain startups.

He wrote at the time:

“As everyone knows, we are going through really tough times at this time. Markets are crashing and startups are running out of money. That’s a big problem for most of the companies in our space and that includes ETCDEV, of course.”

He will go on to announce a seed fundraising planned for the following week. In his tweet, he explained that the group sought short-term funding from within and outside the ecosystem but to no avail.

Blockchain Startups Adjust to Tough Reality

As Smartereum reported, ConsenSys, a venture focused on ethereum-based projects and products, announced some restructuring to become more financially astute and sustainable. ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin informed the employees of the need to cut down operating costs and eliminate unyielding projects. “We must retain, and in some cases regain, the lean and gritty startup mindset that made us who we are,” Lubin wrote.

In a recent interview, he explained that the company was maturing into a new regime—ConsenSys 2.0—where it will focus on performing projects as against interesting ones. He refused to rule out layoffs as part of the restructuring as he explained:

“We are looking at lots of different situations – some of them will shrink, some of them will grow. There’s nothing I want to say concretely about that at this point.”

Other notable projects that have tightened their belts financially are decentralized content sharing platform Steemit which shed as much as 70 percent of its workforce and Spankchian which also dropped staff.

Ethereum Classic [ETC] is NOT Dead

Ethereum Classic, the biggest fork of the ethereum blockchain, clarified that the collapse of ETCDEV doesn’t mean the downfall of the ETC projects explaining that the ailing ETCDEV was only one group among many developer groups working on ETC. “Keep Calm, and Build On,” the post read.

“Ethereum Classic is not ETCDEV. Ethereum Classic is IOHK, ETC Co-op, ETC Labs, ETCDEV, and a litany of volunteers. Keep Calm, and Build On. https://t.co/J4IYvC906j

That notwithstanding, the demise of ETCDEV which was launched in 2016, mirrors the impact of a prolonged bear ride that has seen the crypto market lose over 80 percent of its value since the all-time high.

NamePrice
bitcoin
Bitcoin
$0.00
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic
$0.00

Ethereum Classic [ETC] Price Watch

Just like most of the top 100 cryptocurrencies, ETC is still reeling from the latest dip in crypto markets. Most of the market is in red and ETC is trading 5 percent worse than in the last 24 hours. At $4.06 is also down 17 percent from last week according to data from CoinmarketCap. The total market cap stands at $433,768,640 USD.

As Smartereum reported, U.S.-based crypto exchange surprising listed ETC on its platform in August but this has done nothing to quell the decline in its price from all ATH of $44 in January.

Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.

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